Anti-government protests burn two TV stations

New York, January 26, 2008--Angry opposition supporters burned down two pro-government television stations in the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar today, a few hours after authorities destroyed the antenna of an opposition radio station, according to news reports and local journalists.

The violence highlighted escalating political tensions
between Malagasy President Marc Ravalomanana and rival Andry Rajoelina, the
mayor of the capital, Antananarivo,
since the government summarily shut down the mayor's television station last
month, according to CPJ research. Rajoelina, a 34-year-old outspoken
politician, is leading a popular anti-government movement modeled after Ukraine's 2004
pro-democracy Orange Revolution, according to international news reports.

At least four cars were set on fire and smoke billowed from the studios of the state-run national broadcaster, Radio Nationale Malgache and Télévision Nationale Malgache, after thousands of protestors attacked the complex around 1 p.m. local time, according to freelance journalist Jeannot Ramambazafy.

An hour later, protesters burned down the studios of
Malagasy Broadcasting System, a station owned by President Ravalomanana,
according to local news reports and local journalists. A 14-year-old
demonstrator and a policeman died in clashes at the scene, according to local
reporters.

Earlier, at around 3 a.m., about a dozen armed government
security agents disabled the transmitter of Viva Radio, a station owned by
Rajoelina, according to local journalists. Communications Minister Bruno
Andriantavison had threatened to shut down the station last week, saying that
the commentary on a morning call-in program had incited civil disobedience and
undermined "the public's trust towards national institutions," the local media
quoted an official letter as saying.

"Media outlets have become the undeserving targets of
political feuding and violence between the government and opposition forces,"
CPJ's Africa program coordinator, Tom Rhodes,
said. "The political leaders from both parties must call for an immediate end
to attacks on these facilities, which endanger the lives of the journalists who
work there."

In a prior incident, on January 9, two
unidentified attackers threw a small bomb with a warning note about the program
in the home of veteran journalist Harry Laurent Rahajason, better known as
Rolly Mercia, according to local journalists. No one was injured, the
journalists said.

Media outlets owned by Rajoelina and independent stations
providing coverage of his political activities have been the targets of
government censorship since December 13 when authorities shut down Viva TV, a sister station to Viva Radio also owned
by Ravalomanana, according to CPJ research. An order signed by Communications
Minister Bruno Andriatavison and obtained by CPJ accused Viva TV of
broadcasting "statements likely to trouble security and public order" after the
station aired a November full-length interview with exiled former president
Didier Ratsiraka, according to local journalists. The government deemed the
remarks likely to "incite civil disorder." Andriatavison subsequently withdrew
the license of Viva TV and and security
forces seized the station's transmitter on January 18.